Movie actress who played Scout in 1962 revisits 'Mockingbird' with area students

Donna Smith Oak Ridger news editor

Wednesday

May 2, 2018 at 4:07 PM

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Mary Badham, the child actress who played "Scout" in the Oscar-winning 1962 film, "To Kill a Mockingbird," is now an advocate for children, for education, and for living a life of truth, honor and dignity.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Mary Badham, the child actress who played "Scout" in the Oscar-winning 1962 film, "To Kill a Mockingbird," is now an advocate for children, for education, and for living a life of truth, honor and dignity.

Would you expect any less from the "daughter" of "Atticus Finch?"

The actress — at age 10 she was the youngest actress to be nominated for Best Supporting Actress until 9-year-old Tatum O'Neal won that Oscar for “Paper Moon” — spoke to students at the Episcopal School of Knoxville, where her cousin Kelley Maierhofer is a parent. While she talked briefly with educators and reporters about the movie and its actors, she talked to the students about the movie's messages of living a good life, combating ignorance and racial injustice, as well as helping others.

Sixth-grade students at the private school that some Oak Ridge children attend read Harper Lee's classic book, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” according to school spokeswoman Melissa Callahan. The seventh- and eighth-graders watched the movie last week in preparation for petite Badham's visit.

“This father (Atticus) believes in truth and honor and dignity,” she told the older students who gathered in the school chapel.

“My father was an Atticus,” she explained.

Badham said her father was an Army general but started in the cavalry — not the cavalry of today that travels in armored vehicles, but the cavalry that rode horses. Her father was involved in World War I and II, the Korean War and worked as an adviser in the Vietnam War, she said.

Badham, now in her 60s, recalled growing up in Birmingham, Ala., when “people of color” were not allowed to participate in things and rode in the back of the buses. She mentioned two women as being large parts of her young life, one an African-American and another one-half Cherokee. They were her “spiritual guides,” she said, and major influences in her life.

Racism and bigotry, she told the students, are alive and well in today's society. Ignorance is behind it all, she explained.

“We need to pay attention to history; we need to pay attention to one another,” she said.

“Ignorance is the root of all evil,” Badham had the students repeat after her, followed by the statement, “Education is the key to freedom.”

“This is heaven on Earth,” Badham said of the Episcopal School where she'd spent the morning. “I wish my grandbabies could come here.”

The former actress, art restorer and college testing coordinator speaks to schools all across the country about the movie's messages. But basically, she told reporters, she's now “grandma” to grandchildren who are ages 5, 8 and 13. She and her husband of 45 years — they met in high school — live in Virginia.

“We are a family of color,” she told the students. Badham said she has two adult children — a daughter, who is the mother of her grandchildren, and a son, now 25 and working on his third degree in college, who was adopted from Calcutta, India. Her youngest grandchild, who she described as creative and adored is of a mixed race.

“I would hope you all would be open to everyone in our world — and love one another,” Badham told the students. “Isn't that what Christ told us to do?”

***

Prior to her talk, Badham was interviewed by several reporters and explained that through her visits to schools she wants to help the children appreciate their education and the need for education, as well as helping to give them the strength to deal with “what's thrown at them every day.

“There's a lot of bad stuff going on these days,” Badham said. “And our children are afraid.” She said in some schools the fear is almost “palpable.”

“I would like to see healthy children everywhere; well-fed children everywhere,” she said.

Badham spoke about various skills she thinks should be taught in schools, such as shop — she said she's the carpenter in her family — so that they can make repairs at their homes, as well as help others, including those who are the victims of natural disasters. She said she likes to see children going on mission trips to help others such as in those times of natural disasters, particularly children of more affluent families so they can help others and see how other people live.

The gift of giving, Badham said, probably comes from her Christian background, but it was also one of the messages of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

“Atticus gave of himself,” she said of her “father” in the movie. “Honor is something you have to work at everyday.”

Badham also spoke of today's society and its problems, including the “short shrift” education is given with teachers having to hold down several jobs to support themselves and their families.

Badham said she is concerned about the state of democracy and the actions of some to return to a time when only white men ruled.

“Power and money are damaging to our democracy,” she said.

“We have to instill in our children truth and honor and dignity.”

Donna Smith can be contacted at (865) 220-5514 and follow him on Twitter@ridgernewsed.

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